Cuba's declaration followed
the U.S.A.'s decision, a day earlier,
to enter the war.

Menocal was clear in
arguing that both morally and practically Cuba was allied closely to the
U.S. and that her interests therefore lay in siding with her against
Germany's "implacable aggression" in the present conflict.

Mario Menocal's Statement on
Cuba's Decision to Enter the War, 7 April 1917

Cuba cannot remain neutral in
this supreme conflict, because the declaration of neutrality would oblige her to
treat all belligerents equally, refusing them with equal rigour any access to
her ports and imposing on them the same restrictions and prohibitions, which
would be in the present case contrary to public sentiment, to the essence of the
pacts and moral obligations, moral rather than legal, which bind us to the
United States; and would result, lastly, because of our geographical location,
in being the cause of innumerable conflicts, the consequences of which it is
easy to predict for a friendly and allied nation, and which would prove an
inexcusable weakness and condescension for the attitude of implacable aggression
unconditionally proclaimed by the Imperial German Government against the rights
of all neutral peoples and against the principles of humanity and justice, which
constitute the highest note of modern civilisation.